According to independent graphic fiction magazine Your Days Are Numbered, Julian Hanshaw is very rad. I thought this meant he was very radiator, as both he and I have turned 40 and the looseness of lingo tends to get replaced by the humdrum of household essentials the older you get….

However, I can now state for a FACT that Julian Hanshaw is indeed very rad – and this is because I have just seen his finished artwork for the HOAX graphic novel.

Wow.

And I mean freakin-amazin-my-oh-my-oh-my-wow. You are in for such a TREAT!

Julian has a blogspot (fromjuliansbrain) and has posted ‘two tiny, tiny slithers from two of the pages’ there, along with this missive:

“Ravi Thornton (Brin & Bent and Minno Marylebone) has rounded up 10 outstanding names of the British Graphic Novel world and somehow I managed to sneak in when no one was looking.

Names such as Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry have been given sections to illustrate of Ravi’s deeply personal project.

To find out more about this wonderful project and how in God’s name I was invited along for the ride, have a peek here [Ravi’s website]!”

So not only devastatingly talented, but endearingly humble too. What a lovely man.

You may recall me mentioning the call out (asking attending comic-people to submit artwork for auction) that went along with the recent conference in Brighton. Not being an illustrator myself, I submitted a piece drawn by my brother Rob.

Around 20 prints were auctioned, raising over £600 for the Creative Therapies Fund of mental health charity MIND.

The fund helps people make sense of their mental health problems through local arts projects in supportive environments with trained therapists.

'The therapeutic effects of creative activities can be enormous. For those who can't find words to express how they feel, they can be a lifesaver. For some people, creative therapies provide more profound and long-lasting healing than more standard forms of treatment for mental health problems. They provide a powerful means of expression and a release from trauma.'

It's a great cause, the auction was a great idea, and I'm glad that Rob and I have been a part of it all.

HOAX Psychosis Blues involves ten illustrators each working to separate briefs. This means not only do their artworks have to cohere, but so too do their schedules, ideas stages, deliverables etc. along the way….

HOAX as an overall project has its own academic research strand, headed up by Prof Matt Green. Through Matt came a further research strand in the form of Ellie Reedy. Ellie is currently doing a Masters in publishing, and one of her main research threads is how project management strategies bring together several creative collaborators on a single project.

As such Ellie has been acting project manager for HOAX Psychosis Blues, gathering essential research for her dissertation whilst simultaneously providing invaluable support by way of her brilliant organisational skills and whipcracking.

Last week Ellie interviewed me as part of her dissertation, asking things like: - What are the advantages of working on a collaborative project? - What do you consider to be the biggest challenges of working in a collaborative team? - How do you think project management strategies differ when working on a creative/arts project compared to more business focused projects? All of which were really interesting questions for me to sit down and really think about.…

Her final question was: Can project management be a barrier to artistic projects such as HOAX and if so how?

I suppose it could under some circumstances, or if the management was so rigid it became stifling - but this certainly hasn't been my experience with Ellie. A ten-illustrator project with, in effect, ten separate-yet-related briefs, actually requires a great deal of management. Ellie has provided a highly efficient yet personable, non-artist interface, which in turn has kept all the artist-to-artist communications (typically more passionate!) focused and on track. Far from being a barrier, she's been a great facilitator - in fact nothing short of a wonder.

Matt Green (Associate Professor of English Literature at Nottingham University) is attached to HOAX as the project's academic researcher. It's been, and continues to be, an absolute pleasure to have the professor on board and work beside him. Matt is studying several aspects of HOAX, and of other pieces of my work, including their biographical components. This month Matt and I travelled to Brighton to present at the 4th International Conference on Comics and Medicine.

Here's the abstract of our paper, titled THE ETHICS OF GRAPHIC MEMOIR AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY:

'This paper will discuss two works that depict the effects of trauma and mental breakdown, considering the ethical implications of translating real events into a fictional format and of representing the life story of someone else. Combining the self-reflexive accounts of the writer with a critical analysis grounded in the medical humanities, this paper aims to yield insight into the ethical questions associated with representations of trauma and mental illness. Further, it will explore the use of the graphic novel to tackle sensitive mental health issues as well as the medium's relation to other genres.

The first text, The Tale Of Brin & Bent And Minno Marylebone, encodes personal traumawithin a metaphorical form, seeking to convey first-hand psychological experience through fictional narrative. This intercourse between fact and fiction raises ethical considerations in its own right, particularly as the narrative utilises the fictional account of an abused child to explore an adult experience of helplessness, which prompted the printer to require the insertion of an authorial note disclosing the book's autobiographical dimension.

The second work, HOAX, tells the story of the author's brother, Rob, who suffered from schizophrenia, and killed himself in 2008 at the age of 31. The first portion of the story is told through musical theatre, while the second part takes the form of a graphic novel based around poems that brother and sister wrote during his illness. In addition to yielding insight into the movement between genres and across different audiences, this project facilitates an exploration of the relationship between memoir and biography. Specifically, it brings into focus interrelated questions related to voice and authenticity. The project functions as both memoir and memorial, while at the same time transposing Rob's experiences and words into new -- and public -- contexts.' As the HOAX graphic novel grows ever-more developed, and its mental-health nature ever-more clear, my thoughts turn towards what my responsibilities will be when we actually put the book 'out there' into the public domain. A fascinating meeting of Graphic Medicine minds, the conference was really very useful in this respect, giving me a lot to think about.

When creating a graphic novel with some of the top illustrative talent around – Bryan Talbot, Hannah Berry, Mark Stafford et al – it’s easy to get caught up in the sheer superbness of it all. Seeing their work come in, with all of its deftness and surety, can make it look so effortless. But of course it’s not. It’s hard work like any creative endeavour.

And perhaps it’s hardest of all for Rozi Hathaway.

When devising HOAX, it was really important to me to bring on board not just established illustrative cream, but also one complete unknown. That unknown is Rozi.

I connected with Rozi via Twitter, and saw something in her artwork that I thought might just work for a particular section in the graphic novel. We had a chat, and she rose to the challenge admirably. I use the word challenge because I think for Rozi this project has been just that.

The reason I wanted to spotlight this in a post, however, is not to portray Rozi as a mouse amongst giants. Instead it’s to say how impressed I am with how Rozi has dealt with the challenge, coped with the considerable amount of feedback on her various roughs, taken all of that feedback on board, stayed positive, committed and communicative (all whilst holding down two jobs), and produced some truly excellent work as a result.

HOAX has many themes. One of these is schizophrenia, and last week Director Benji Reid and I sat down with Doctor Ian Williams to learn more about the condition from a medical perspective.

As a close family member of someone who suffered from schizophrenia for several years, I have my own, very personal views and beliefs on this particular mental illness. In some ways I’m acutely informed, but of course this can also blind me to the wider, more objective truths of schizophrenia.

It was great to hear Ian’s perspective, based both on his learning and experience. The conversation was lively and insightful, and the first of several I’m sure, as we delve ever deeper into HOAX, it’s characters and how we bring their heart-achingly honest stories to life.

Many thanks Ian, for your time and expertise. It’s a real boon to the project to have you aboard.